Net zero 2070 and the National Action Plan on Climate Change

Prelims and MainsCurrent affairs on this: India's climate policy: NDCs, net zero and adaptation

India's climate policy has two layers: what it promised the world, and what it does at home. The promises are the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets and the net zero year of 2070, announced by the Prime Minister at Glasgow in 2021 as part of the Panchamrit, five commitments including 500 GW of non fossil capacity by 2030. The home programme is older: the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) of 2008, with its original eight national missions, each run by a ministry, on solar, energy efficiency, habitat, water, the Himalaya, forests, agriculture and knowledge; every State has its own action plan under it. In 2022 India filed its long term low emission development strategy, which sets out how 2070 is reached, and launched Mission LiFE, a campaign for individual behaviour. India's resolution on sustainable lifestyles was adopted by the UN Environment Assembly in 2024 and by the 15th Ramsar Conference in 2025, and India jointly chairs the board of the 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production for 2026 to 2028. One number joins the layers: the emissions intensity of GDP.

The eight missions of 2008

Mission	Ministry	One line
National Solar Mission	New and Renewable Energy	the solar target, now inside 500 GW non fossil by 2030
Enhanced Energy Efficiency	Power (Bureau of Energy Efficiency)	Perform, Achieve and Trade, now folded into the carbon market
Sustainable Habitat	Housing and Urban Affairs	building codes, transport, waste
Water	Jal Shakti	20 per cent gain in water use efficiency
Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem	Science and Technology	glaciers and mountain livelihoods
Green India	Environment	forest and tree cover on 10 million hectares
Sustainable Agriculture	Agriculture	climate resilient farming
Strategic Knowledge	Science and Technology	research and data

Eight missions from 2008, one per ministry; the first two carry the numbers, the rest carry the intent. A ninth, on human health and climate change, was added in 2025.Source: National Action Plan on Climate Change, 2008

The original eight missions of 2008: National Solar Mission (the origin of the 100 GW and now 500 GW targets); Enhanced Energy Efficiency (the Perform, Achieve and Trade scheme); Sustainable Habitat; Water; Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem; Green India (forest cover); Sustainable Agriculture; and Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change. A ninth, the National Mission on Human Health and Climate Change, was added in 2025.
Panchamrit, Glasgow 2021: 500 GW non fossil capacity by 2030; half of energy needs from renewables by 2030; one billion tonnes off projected emissions by 2030; intensity down 45 per cent by 2030; net zero by 2070. Only the intensity and the capacity share went into the NDC as quantified targets.
Net zero means emissions balanced by removals, not zero emissions; India's route runs through electricity first, then industry, with forests and carbon capture covering what remains, and the strategy says it depends on finance and technology from abroad.
India's argument on equity: cumulative historic emissions and per capita emissions far below the world average, so 2070 rather than 2050, and finance from those who emitted first.
Adaptation sits beside mitigation: the National Adaptation Fund, State action plans, Heat Action Plans in cities, and the new Global Goal on Adaptation indicators.

Mains: India's 2070 date is a statement about equity as much as engineering: it says a country that has emitted a small share of the stock should not be asked to decarbonise on the same clock as those that emitted most of it.

Further reading: National Action Plan on Climate Change (MoEFCC) · State Action Plan on Climate Change (MoEFCC)